As some of you might know, supporting women in higher education leadership remains a high priority for me in terms of my career. Certainly, I’ve very much benefited from my time with NHWHEL (New Hampshire Women in Higher Ed Leadership) while I was at Southern New Hampshire University as an associate dean. Colleagues & friends helped me to realize that such networks of women become critical, especially when facing a glass ceiling re: senior executive roles. Luckily, my current position at Western Governors University has been incredible in support of women in leadership, as I have several role models & mentors whom I admire. Yet, I also believe that I landed this role at WGU in part due to advice I had been given at an NHWHEL event a little over a year ago. One of the women presidents of a NH higher ed institution within the state shared that women continued to be held to different expectations–that men are hired based on potential but that women land positions through their track records. That the disparity was a reality, whether we like it or not.

As such, women trying for highly visible leadership roles need to display very high levels of energy, especially when being interviewed for a new career move. Chug a Red Bull if necessary, but one needs to show up “bright-eyed & bushy-tailed,” as my mother would say. Those first impressions mean everything.

In terms of career advancement, much can be gained in becoming that second voice to reinforce another woman’s ideas during work or group meetings, for example. It’s not necessarily the first person or early adopter of a new idea that starts the wave of major change within the organization, but rather the first seconder is the one to spark that catalyst for change. That first seconder of an idea helps create momentum, momentum that catches traction as more & more people become aware & promote the proposed change. This theory has caused me to reexamine myself in meetings, since I don’t always need to be the one advocating for the change directly. As an INFJ Libra with an eye to fairness, I often find myself often wanting to champion the underdog & speak up on others’ behalves; yet, this can work against me in the long run, especially since women who speak more frequently in executive meetings tend to lose peer approval. According to a Yale study, when chief executives were rated for voicing their opinions during meetings freely, the men who spoke up increased their competence score by 10%; whereas, in contrast, the women who spoke up & freely were penalized by a drop of 14% (even when rated by both men & women counterparts) in approval. Even women disapproved of other women!

As of June 2019, the percent of CEO positions held by women hit an all-time high of 6.6% (or 33 out of 500) up from 4.8% (24 out of 500) in the prior year, according to Fortune magazine’s famous 500. Now, higher ed institutions hold a much better record for placing women in top-ranking positions as presidents, moving from 10% in 1986 to 30% in 2016, but expectations are also different for women in higher ed career trajectories.

One major area of impact for women higher ed leaders is the time constraint tied to having children, should women want to bear their own. A woman’s reproductive system must honor certain periods when fertility is highest (due to aging) or freeze eggs for future use, relying on fertility treatments (extremely costly, I might add) & the challenges they present. Things like miscarriages become unspoken emotional hurdles that garner little support, especially for women adjunct faculty who lack job benefits. For women to even reach the level of president of an institution, certain blocks of time are required not only for earning the requisite degrees but also in putting in the career time re: teaching, research, & academic service to move forward in a ranking process. As tenure-track faculty positions become less & less available, that means that more women must consider administrative tracks for the kinds of career advancement & pay increases expected from such a large investment of time & resources on the front end. And the cost of degrees has gone up quite a bit from when I was pursuing mine. Really, I don’t know if I’d have been able to complete a Ph.D. if I had to attend today as a traditional student on a brick-&-mortar campus like the one on which I lived at the University of New Hampshire.

Thankfully, I entered online higher ed development in 2010, a couple of years after defending my dissertation & a couple of years of experience teaching at an emotional growth boarding school for at-risk teens. This placed me a bit ahead of the curve for online curriculum design & launching of programs, & I’ve now gained experience at three of the biggest providers (100K+ students) of online higher ed degrees, nationally–Kaplan Higher Ed (which became Purdue Global), Southern New Hampshire University, & now Western Governors University.

One of the things that makes me love my current position at WGU is the presence of so many talented & inspiring women leaders in high-level executive roles. This is why I recently volunteered & was voted in as a Board of Directors member & also Secretary for UWHEN (Utah Women in Higher Ed Network, & ACE Women’s Network in Utah), as my participation will help me to better establish a network with other women in Utah. My hope is to give back by mentoring other women, even though I’m certainly not perfect & I still wrestle with my own challenges as a career mom to a toddler. Like I try to do with introversion & anxiety as topics re: this blog, I aim to normalize the unique challenges & obstacles that women must navigate in their careers–things like implicit or unconscious bias on the part of both men & women colleagues or superiors. These challenges most often emerge in communication exchanges & group meetings where women can be interrupted or told information in a tone called “mansplaining.” To be fair, men aren’t the only ones who can discriminate against women. Due to the scarcity of positions in those most highest of hierarchies or corporate echelons, women can compete with or sabotage others. I’ve had women bosses who have done this to me in the past, but I’ve also had amazing women mentors who were committed to supporting other women in higher ed & genuinely did just that.

So, part of me really gets it when Madeleine Albright as a second-wave feminist calls out women who don’t support other women, especially in settings where women need that support the most (STEM comes to mind, as I had a minor in math as an undergrad & was the only woman in my Calc IV & Diff EQs courses). So, I’m writing about this in part to hold myself accountable & to do my part, my civic duty, in helping other women rise. This is to get the ball rolling as part of my commitment, so I will provide updates in blog posts to come.